Left: A photo of Virginia Ellisor and South Carolina politician Lee Bright from Ellisor’s Facebook page; right: a screenshot of Santorum listening to Ellisor’s rant

On a swing into South Carolina last week in his never-ending but never-gonna-happen campaign to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum proved again that he is a political hack who lacks the gravitas — and class — required to be president.

During a Q&A session at a birther, anti-Muslim summit, Santorum said nothing during a two-and-a-half minute rant by Virginia Ellisor, a self-described “retired teacher, lifelong political activist and lifelong resident of South Carolina,” who laced her comments with a series of ridiculous allegations against the president — that Pres. Obama is a “communist dictator,” that he is “not a citizen,” and that he is “trying to destroy the United States.”

Getting to specifics about the latter accusation, Ellisor cited a recent alleged attempt by the president to destroy an American city.

“Obama tried to blow up a nuke in Charleston a few months ago,” Ellisor said, “and the three Admirals and Generals. He has totally destroyed our military. He has fired all the Generals and all the Admirals who said they wouldn’t fire on the American people if they ask ’em to do so if he wanted to take the guns away from ’em.”

When Santorum finally responded to Virginia Ellisor, he let her lies about the president stand, while rushing to correct her assertion that he was a sitting member of Congress — he even described his party in Congress as having a “crisis of leadership.” He also described the president as a “tyrant” because he had issued an executive action on immigration, even though as Santorum surely knows Obama’s order was not radically different from 18 such actions issued by recent Republican presidents.

But when it came to the accusation that the president of the United States was determined to nuke Charleston, Santorum let that one stand.

According to Right Wing Watch, conspiracy theories about the president’s intent to set off nuclear bombs in the United States have been circulating since at least September 2013, when allegations surfaced that the mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., was actually an attack by armed officials (we guess) of the Obama administration who were bent on thwarting Navy leadership from arresting the president for treason after they uncovered his plot to set off a nuclear bomb in D.C. and blame it on Syria as pretext for launching a war against Assad regime.

A month later, Obama’s dastardly plotting had shifted southward, according to fringe theorists. Instead of blowing up the nation’s capitol, he had set his sites on Charleston. A headline on the Daily Paul Liberty Forum, a website associated with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, another 2016 GOP presidential wannabe, and his father, the failed presidential candidate, Ron Paul, read: “We Will Not Be Disarmed: Obama Ousts Top Officers After Nuke Explodes In Ocean Instead Of Charleston.” The article itself was just one garbled paragraph:

shocking new Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) reportcirculating in the Kremlin today states that President Barack Obama, while in a rage, ousted four of the United States top ranking military officers after they refused to detonate a nuclear device “in/near” Charleston, South Carolina this past week and, instead, exploded it off the Atlantic Coast.

In fact, as Dave Weigel reported recently, the four generals were sanctioned for other reasons:

[US Navy Vice Admiral Tim] Giardina was sacked, but this was later found to be related to a poker-rigging scheme that had been uncovered by the Navy’s Inspector General. [US Air Force Major General Michael] Carey was removed from his job after an investigation into a drunken bender that took him around Moscow; though Carey remains a special assistant to the commander of Air Force Space Command. [Major General Charles M. Gurganus and Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant] were forced into retirement in September 2013, after a yearlong investigation into a Taliban attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. Both men were removed, in other words, before the alleged “false flag” attack — and neither had anything to do with nuclear security.

In January, conservative activist Jim Garrow, who appears to be a primary source for this particular hoax, claimed that an uptick in dying dolphins proved that Obama had exploded a nuke in the ocean near Charleston — even though actual scientists said the dolphins had been poison by the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

VIRGINIA ELLISOR: Senator Santorum, thank you for being here. I’m Virginia Ellisor, a retired schoolteacher, lifelong political activist, and lifelong resident of South Carolina. I’ll ask you the same question I asked Senator Cruz. I’ll preface it by saying—Michele Bachman, I think it was king said that Boehner made a deal.

My question’s on defending this country. Thank you for what you do for national security. I’m concerned with sealing these borders and protecting United States. I’ve fought that battle all my life. And I’m losing, and it’s because I’m not getting help from my Congress.

And anyway, Michele Bachmann and King, in an interview on one station said that Boehner made a deal with Obama back in September to be on board with his executive amnesty. The American people put Republicans back in office in the House and the Senate and the two things we asked y’all to do was shut down Obama’s executive amnesty and shut down Obamacare. And you didn’t. You let us down on both issues.

Why is the Congress rolling over and lettin’ this communist dictator destroy my country? Y’all know what he is and I know what he is. I want him out of the White House. He’s not a citizen. He could’ve been removed a long time ago. Larry Klayman’s the one who got the judge to say that the executive amnesty is illegal. Everything he does is illegal. He’s trying to destroy the United States. The Congress knows this. What kind of games is the Congress of the United States playing with the citizens of the United States?

Y’all need to work for us, not for the lobbyists that pay your salaries.

Get on board. Well let’s stop all this and get save America.

Y’know, what’s goin’ on Senator Santorum.

Where do we go from here? Ted told me I’ve got to wait now till the next election. I don’t think the country will be around for the next election.

Obama tried to blow up a nuke in Charleston a few months ago and the three Admirals and Generals. He has totally destroyed our military. He has fired all the Generals and all the Admirals who said they wouldn’t fire on the American people if they ask ’em to do so if he wanted to take the guns away from ’em. This man is a Communist dictator. We need him out of the White House now. And the Congress of the United States is the only one — we’ve lost our Congress. We’ve lost our executive.

7 Comments

Jon Ponder, I know you copied the transcript of Ellisor’s ranting from Jezebel, but the name that Ellisor mentioned in this sentence…

“Larry Cleveland’s the one who got the judge to say that the executive amnesty is illegal”

…isn’t “Larry Cleveland”, it’s “Larry Klayman” — the guy who invited President Obama to “put the Quran down and come out with his hands up” during the October 2013 government shutdown.

—————

It amazes me that a 71 year old woman who’s been using Medicare for 6 years (hopefully getting her Xanax prescriptions filled frequently with Medicare Part D) would rant about Obamacare, the law that’s probably protecting her 50-something offspring. Clueless, and demented.

Demented doesn’t BEGIN to describe it. Has this woman been examined by her primary care physician for dementia? And why is it these fruitcakes always seem to turn up in the South?
Rick Santorum is nothing but a COWARD who shouldn’t be anywhere NEAR the White House if he doesn’t have the class to tell what he knows to be the truth about the President. Even John McCain had integrity enough to set a woman straight in his audience who thought the President was an ‘Arab’. Could Santorum stoop any lower?

BRAVO! So glad there is someone who believes in the 1st Amendment; Freedom of Speech. I love her! We agree, we have an illegal usurper in the White House who is acting like a communist dictator! Go SC!

Where do they find these people?! Surprising she has all of her teeth! What a dumb, redneck, ignorant woman. I hope she is not a republican cuz I need votes. #Ted Cruz……I am running for President and my wife is going to need Obamacare.q

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Enumerati

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Poetic Justice

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Verbatim

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